


This Is What Makes Us Girls

by iamamiwhoami



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Choni Marriage, Dancing, F/F, F/M, Fire, Fluffy, Friendship, Goodbyes, I Love Women So Much, Lana Del Rey Inspired Me As Always, Love, Protect These Girls, Sweetwater River, Tears, bughead - Freeform, choni, girls, parents issues, taking care, traumas, varchie, whisky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-16
Updated: 2018-07-16
Packaged: 2019-06-11 14:27:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15317472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamamiwhoami/pseuds/iamamiwhoami
Summary: On the banks of Sweetwater River, with old whiskey, golden flames, improvised dances, tragicomic marriage ceremonies and shared misfortunes, five girls just want to exist.





	This Is What Makes Us Girls

**Author's Note:**

> I'm nervous. But I needed to write this. I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Inspired by Lana Del Rey, This is What Makes us Girls.

 

 

_**Come on, take a shot.** _

 

"I don't wanna hear about this anymore, Veronica Cecilia Lodge! "

Hermione's voice inside Pembrooke is more ruthless than ever, but Veronica won't back down. She's still a Lodge and a Lodge never backs down.

"You can't just ignore me forever, mother. He's hurting people and you know it, you always knew it! "

"Dios mío, Veronica, if your father could heard you ..."

"What are you talking about? "The brunette uncomfortably crosses her arms.

"I've just been told about two mouse snooping on forbidden places in my properties, or rather, two little snakes, Forsythe Pendleton Jones III and Antoinette Topaz. An important shipment came to me on the Southside and imagine my surprise when I discover that your friends seemed to know exactly when it would arrive ... "

"Where are they? What did you do to them? " She tries to remain composed, containing the desperation about her friends in trouble.

"I'm a merciful man, Veronica, you should know that already. And, as you must know too, I'm insightful. Let them continue. " Hiram smiles wickedly as he takes the whiskey Hermione dutifully delivers.

Seeing her mother always head down in front of him makes Veronica's stomach churn.

"If you hurt them ..."

"What?" He smiles after a sip of the whisky. "Are you making threats now?

"I'm done with you." She backs away. And she remembers that she should not back down at the same time as she remembers how many times she has retreated to this Lodge in question. "Archie is waiting for me."

Before Veronica can touch the golden knob, another laugh echoes from Hiram and Hermione looks at her with an exhausted and silent plea.

"Yes, of course, the only one ever, isn't that right? Run to Mr. Andrews arms."

"What you mean?" She doesn't even have to face him. It's hard to look at him. There was a time when she looked at him with devotion and anxiety, longing for his company and approval, to be forever his beloved, his protégé.

Now it's just hard.

"It's typical of you to believe that you have power and control over the world and the admiration of the others around you over this power. But the only one who truly believes in any lies or fancy plans you define is the suburban archie Andrews. No one appreciates you except for us, because we're a family, we're the Lodges and we stand up for each other even though everyone hates us. "

"I'm not like you." She falters.

"You're exactly like me, hija. But I'm stronger. Make sure your little snakes know about it before I extract their venom with my bare hands. "

"Hiram ..." Hermione whispers.

It's an unknown crossroad. As if Veronica no longer knew what was preferable: Her father ignoring her and forsaking her or giving her everything of the most superficial and material things, manipulating her for her own purposes. The setting has changed. Veronica can't feel the old disappointment and sadness. Now she fears him. Fear his power of fire and his influence. She fears that he has imprisoned Hermione's mind forever.

Above all, she fears that, at one point, his words are true: "You're exactly like me, hija. "

She doesn't allow them to see her tears when she runs away from Pembrooke.

 

_Remember how we used to party up all night_

_Sneaking out and looking for a taste of real life_

_Drinking in the small town firelight_

 

Sierra McCoy has always been a straightforward woman and this fact has always been clear. There was no room for contestation in front of her orders and she never accepted less than perfection of those who lived nearby. Relatives, subordinates, lovers, what matters and has always mattered is to keep the command balanced. An unbeatable lawyer, an intelligent mood and the success stamped on an invisible crown upon her head.

This heritage about Josie is not genetic, but it's imposed on her as long as she can remember. Surrounded by a powerful and demanding mother, almost forgotten by a powerful and indifferent father. This is her raw reality.

But when hermother knocks Reggie out of her door and tramples on the beautiful bouquet of flowers, and the boy's sad eyes are the last sight of her before facing a raging Sierra, Josie is not sure she can continue to deal with it.

"Don't let me hear you moaning or crying about it, Josephine." The lawyer recovers from the outbreak against the boy attacked.

"I like him!" Josie throws everything on the air. "Why can't you just accept this?"

"Reginald Mantle is nothing but a hick-boy who's going to die in this town, probably working with his father in a garage." She scolds. "He's not good enough for you."

"No one is good enough, no one will ever be, you will never allow it." She whimpers. "I learned to love Music and make it my dream, but I can have other dreams too. I want to go to a silly party and have fun until I lose my voice without being afraid to ruin my Song. I want to fall in love, mother, and this time..."

"Going to a party that will distract you from the possible shows I work hard to get for you?" Sierra folds her arms and smirks. "Falling in love with an immature boy who would only serve to carry your belongings and equipment when you finally achieve the fame?"

"An ordinary party, an ordinary boy, something normal and happy like all ordinary people, mom!"

"You're not an ordinary girl, Josephine McCoy, deal with it. What do you think your father will say when he finds out you're in love with a failed high school athlete?"

"My father?" Incredulous, Josie takes a step backward. "Myles doesn't care, I haven't seen him or talked to him for months. He doesn't even care if we're okay, all he does is say I'm not nearly as good as him. Reggie goes to every single one of my shows and he's always waiting for me after long rehearsals, that's a lot more than my dad has ever did. "

"Please, Josephine, if you strive to be a good musician, perhaps your father would care enough to believe in you!" Sierra finally explodes, closing her eyes and shaking her head in regret a second later.

But it's too late.

It's always too late.

Everything is always too much.

The distance and the requirement. The perfection and the loneliness.

Josie curls up in a scarf and runs out, leaving the door open and Sierra alarmed.

 

_Sweet sixteen and we had arrived_

_Walkin' down the streets as they whistle, "Hi, hi!"_

_Stealin' police cars with the senior guys_

_Teachers said we'd never make it out alive_

 

 

Betty definitely doesn't want to be in front of the squalid prison, curled up in a chair, suspended in a morbid silence while her father's cold eyes regard her almost devilish. She doesn't know if she was not attentive enough or if he was really hiding the face of a psychopath under a suburban man without great ambitions.

"What do you want? " She breaks after almost fifteen silent minutes.

"Can't I want to see my daughter? My greatest creation? " The fool smiles.

"I'm not your creation. I'm not your puppet and I'm not your legacy. "

"I wouldn't be so sure about this if I were you, Elizabeth." He walks with his hands behind his back. " I was thinking of ignoring you for a while, letting you think that you have won and regained control, but I have decided that I don't want to let your remorse pass.

It's like being hit in the pit of the stomach and bending over in a daze. It's like going back to the nightmare, almost a month ago, when she condemned Chic to the justice of the Black Hood.

"What do you want?" She tries again.

"It's what you want. Don't you want to know where the body is?"

This time all the breakfast rolls in her stomach as if about to be regurgitated. An untranslatable genre of pain and guilt besetting itself.

"You ... you killed him."

"No." He giggles. "But I should have, right? When I caught him, when I was ready to cut his lying mouth, he said he didn't resent you. I dragged him to the bus station at dawn and sent him away, Betty. I did it for you, because I love you.You're not an accomplice to murder, at least not because of me. "

"Chic was a murderer and he was threatening me and my mother. I don't regret condemning him. Whatever the reason you spared him, it wasn't love for me."

"Would you rather he died? Would you like to kill him with your bare hands?"

"What?" She backs away, nauseous. "No! "

"I saw it in your eyes that night, Elizabeth, you wanted him dead, you wanted to make him pay for all the horrors he committed."

Distraught in the tone that, rather than accusatory, comes almost mesmerized, Betty jumps up from the chair, clenching her fists.

"You're nothing but an unbalanced psychopath. You do not know anything about me."

"I know all I need to know, I know you want to keep up the work, wear the Black Hood and make all the filthy sinners of that city repent ..."

"As if it's not enough to be crazy, you're a hypocrite and a coward too, Harold." She challenges him. "You shot a man who just did not legally divorce but separated from his wife years ago, calling him an adulterer. You hurt Moose and killed Midge because they were living their normal teenage years, no matter how bad you think about it. God, you tried to kill Cheryl, who did nothing but support me while I was trying to figure out if you were the damn killer I thought of and we were right! "

"Cheryl Blossom is a suicidal that failed, but still a suicidal, the laws div ..."

"Her mother and the acts of her crazy family have pushed her to this, you attacked her because you knew she would discover her secret with me, as she has helped us discover what was hidden in this cursed city before. But you never punished Penelople for her crimes. You didn't even threaten Hiram Lodge for destroying so many lives.You let Nicholas St. Clair escape after all he did.You don't go after the true 'sinners', it's just a stupid kid's game because you do not is able to take the risk with opponents as depraved as you. "

"But you would be, wouldn't you?" His laugh echoes again. "You'd be able to wipe out the evil in this town, Betty, if you'll let me guide you ..."

"You'll rot in this prison and will never interfere with our lives again, I'll never be like you."

"You already are, Elizabeth!" He gets angry, hitting the barrier that separates them, without giving up the demonic grin. "Riverdale will never forget the maniac Cooper, they'll never leave our family alone! Soon everyone will realize that we're all crazy, I bet your mother is going crazy right now! Soon your friends and your precious Jughead will realize the blood that flows in your veins are made for insanity, as it was with me, as it was with my father and grandfather! "

"I'm a good person. I don't need to prove anything to you." A solitary tear trickles down her face as she retreats backward.

"You will see, Elizabeth, very soon, madness can not be contained forever."

Betty walks in a breathless rush, her lungs burning and burning, while her hands involuntarily pick up the cell phone and call the person closest to her who undoubtedly knows the terror of a sadistic father.

 

 

_There she was my new best friend_

_High heels in her hands, swayin' in the wind_

_Oh, she starts to cry, mascara running down her little bambi eyes_

_"Lana, how I hate those guys!"_

 

 

Toni doesn't usually go to the cemetery. Ever since she became a Serpent, by the time the leather jacket touched her shoulders, still trembling from the cursed display on the Whyte Wyrm stage, she decided she could no longer feed a past of creepy, tortuous roads.

She can remember a house in the suburbs of a city not so far away, whose name was lost in her torments. She can remember a simple garden, pots of homemade jams and coats patched in a thousand colors. But whenever she does, whenever her mind carries her up to her childhood, these tender souvenirs distort and clash with drug trafficking, cheap brandy, handcuffs, blood and death.

The present time seems brighter. Fangs and Sweet Pea are like their brothers and she believes that Jughead is very close to entering this category. her girlfriend is Cheryl Blossom, the most sensational girl she has ever had the pleasure of meeting in her crossing of lightning novels and transient emotions, the redhead coming into her life and sweeping away everything that was brief, building a home in her heart that, not even if she tried to drown herself in every case and trivial kisses, she could ignore.

The Serpents are beginning to be accepted, even with the fury and injustice of Hiram Lodge probing every nook and cranny of the city. She has her camera and her school grades are high, because her girlfriend is not content to be beautiful, chaotic, dramatic and commander of the River Vixens, she also needed to be extremely intelligent and flawless in her studies, promoting sessions that were confused between long, exhausting apprenticeships, and between occasional touches that extended to books scattered on the floor and sheets wrapped around her intertwined legs.

Everything is fine now.

Maybe that's why Toni needs to be in the cemetery. She's happy for her unconventional family, no matter how much she asks herself what it would be like to have a normal family, in a normal little house, a life without tribulations. And the tombs of her parents are the last sight, which she avoided for so many years, able to stop the incessant question.

"Lord and Lady Topaz, it's been a long time." She whispers, holding a single flower in her hand, sitting cross-legged on the soft grass in front of the stone tombstones.

"There're so many things I would like to say. That I would forgive you both if you were alive. That I would give you both a second chance even though you were still self-destructing and destroying me in the process." Words never before uttered burn in her throat.

"I wanted to tell you about Sweet Pea, who's like an older brother. About how he protects me and feeds me, and doesn't let any fools get close to me. About how he made me feel safer as I entered the gang and how he pretends to detest colored cereals with fish shapes and I pretend not to know that he buys a box and devours it whenever there's no one around to laugh at him. " She slides down a picture of Sweet Pea asleep on the couch, hugging an empty cereal box.

"And this is Fangs. Fangs Forgaty, who is, unlike Sweet Pea, as younger brother." He has the most adorable smile, the most optimistic advices, and the best taste for parties and clothes. Fangs taught me how to dance and always brushes my paint hair in different shades of pink when he realizes, without needing me to say, that I'm sad. He did it today, shortly before I came here. " Besides Sweet Pea's, she slides a photo of Fangs shirtless, with open arms, balanced on a single leg, with his tongue outstretched and glasses in the shape of golden stars.

"These two are FP and Jughead Jones." The third picture is Jughead and FP caught unawares, hugging heavily in the motorcycle parking lot. "Jughead came to care for us and he goes to great lengths to defend us as best he could. And FP, our leader, taught me how to drive the motorcycle and make some drinks that gave me a temporary job in the Whyte Wyrm. They're part of our family of snakes, but on the other hand, they're their own family, they have each other, they're proud of each other, a family within a family, it sounds safer than I can ever understand. "

The last photo remains in her hands for a moment before finding your place among the others. A picture of Cheryl sitting on the rump of Toni's parked motorcycle, laughing spontaneously at a silly Kevin Keller's joke. Radiating. Red. Vivid.

"For the last, but not less important... Wherever you are, you must know who she is. "Cheryl Blossom. The Northside Princess who gave her heart to me, poor Serpent, and made me breathe alive through first time in a long time. " Her fingers touch the rolled paper, well where her girlfriend's twilight hair flutters. "You know, she gave me her hand and... And she thinks I saved her. But she did. She saved me. I don't know if she knows that, but she saved me.

"I just ..." Toni sighs as the first tears trickle down. "I wanted you guys not to get destroyed, I wish you were here to see who I am and who I will still be.To see my shield brothers, my incredible girlfriend, my photography and my progress in high school, just to see... You didn't have to be anything as I wish you were. You should just... Have lived.

"I didn't mean to come. But Cheryl is officially a Serpent and I'm moving with her and her grandmother Rose to Thistlehouse, and when I arrived with my backpack and motorcycle she gave me that smile that I would give everything for you to be here to see. As if I were something precious, mother. As if I were important, father. I came because I needed to tell you first. Because I discovered that I lov... "

Her phone vibrating repeatedly in the pocket of her coat interrupts profusely the dense confession. Messages from Cheryl. She doesn't hesitate to jump back on the motorcycle and goes for her.

The pictures of Sweet Pea, Fangs, Jughead, FP and Cheryl remains in front of the gravestones.

 

 

_This is what makes us girls_

_We all look for heaven and we put our love first_

_Something that we'd die for, It's a curse_

_Don't cry about it, don't cry about it_

 

Cheryl has not experienced an emotional breakdown since the sexual conversion therapy and the severe nun's punishments, but the way her body shivers and her heart soars with an inevitable pain is like a deafening alarm that she's about to collapse into an abyss of despair again.

She can't tell if it's her abominable uncle with a smile on his face, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel of the car; if it's the suitcases seen in the backseat by the transparent windows; or if it's, as she supposes, because of the soft expression on her mother's face, though so elegant and cruelly beautiful, as always, offered to her for the first time with hidden affection.

Penelope simply never looked at her so softly and Cheryl doesn't know how she should feel before this, nor whether the happiness that threatens to break into her should exist.

The Blossom matriarch still seems vicious and dangerous, the trace of untouchable and somber royalty has not changed. But now she has meek eyes, lips almost imperceptibly bent up, and brows, relaxed for the first time, denouncing a tenderness that terrifies Cheryl more than her usual insensitivity and brutality.

There they are. Claudius in the car, indifferent. Nana Rose in the window of Cheryl's bedroom upstairs, watching also with indifference. Emotions are around Cheryl and Penelope, surrounding them, imprisoning them, and no one can interfere.

"I'm leaving Riverdale, Cheryl."

The sentence rings in the silence of Thistlehouse's privacy and echoes inside Cheryl as a noisy, violent explosion.

"Oh." Just a few circumstances are capable of completely stealing Cheryl's words. This is one of them, words crushed by the impact of the unpredictable and, although she dares not admit it, painful.

"We're still not sure of the proper facilities." Penelope clear her throat and hands a card out of her purse. "But you can get in touch soon if necessary."

"If necessary." Any possible speech, a feature embedded in her personality, is lost again.

"It will be productive, like a fresh start."

"With him?" Cheryl's voice sounds more hostile than intended.

"With me?" Penelope replies immediately, almost bitter and uncomfortable.

Cheryl tightens and kneads the card between her fingers, as if holding on to a denial that does not exist.

"I must give you this." Again her perfectly gloved satin hand is stretched out and the ring set gleams beneath the evening sun. The ring Jason had given to Polly when they planned to run away together. Nana Rose's ring.

Cheryl accepts it and shrugs involuntarily when Penelope hesitates before pulling her hand away from hers.

"You kept it ... Why?"

The softness crumbles from Penelope's eyes and, as so often, she just turns her back and walks elegantly toward the car.

"Mother ..." Cheryl whispers almost defenseless, there is no sarcasm, no challenges.

Penelope breathes a long breath and turns to face her, the strange, nameless softness resurfacing in her dark eyes.

"Your grandmother never gave the ring to Clifford." She starts with overflowing bitterness, poking her nose into the snobbish posture Cheryl knew so well. "Since your father and I met, she never approved our relationship and made a point of clarifying that I was not qualified to marry him. Her grandmother isn't as immaculate as you might believe, but she would certainly give you the ring since Jason can no longer make good use of it. "

Cheryl's stomach wraps at the cold mention of her twin.

"I'm sorry." Cheryl whispers again.

Penelope's eyebrows roses in surprise at the simple-minded statement.

"Jason would be the first Blossom to destroy the traditions, you know?" To Cheryl's surprise, Penelope continues. "You two would be, for example, the first Blossom twins in many generations who didn't want to or intended to murder each other. And when Jason became involved with the girl Cooper, in love, following her like a trained dog in every corner of the town, the pregnancy, the flight, the plan ... He would be the first. Your father made sure to stop him. "

"Why are you forcing me to remember?" Cheryl backs away defensively.

"Because you'll be the first, Cheryl." A trace of a smile shines on her pale face and disappears almost immediately. "You will not take the Maple Farm. You set fire to Thornhill. You got caught up in a friendship with Elizabeth, a Cooper. You're now emancipated... " She crosses her arms uncomfortably. "You fell in love with a girl from the southside and joined your gang in unorthodox ways, breaking traditions beyond the Blossoms. And if I know you, Cheryl Marjorie Blossom, unable to take a step without a great show, one day this ring will be placed on this Serpent's finger. "

"Antoinette Topaz." The name escapes softly between Cheryl's red lips. "Her name is Antoinette Topaz."

Penelope scans her shoulders and bites her cheek internally, guarding for the first time her spurts of venom and prejudice.

"You've never been what we expected. You've never lived up to expectations the way we planned. You were unpredictable at every turn, a sudden quirk in the face of every eventuality. " Unexpectedly, Penelope leans forward and touches the her daughter's livid face, breathing deeply. "I always knew you were completely different from all Blossom. All of us. Including Jason. You've always been b..."

_"Better"._

Penelope Blossom, at the last second, completely breaking the haunting magic around them, prevented her from saying _"you've always been better."_

"Bedraggled?" Cheryl tries to fill the void.

"Bedraggled." Penelope walks away, Cheryl's face getting used to the absence of the warmth of her satin gloves again.

"Be safe." The command, which sounds like a plea, escapes from Cheryl before she can contain it.

She feels inexplicably foolish for saying it, but again, for the last time, the ghost of a smile haunts Penelope's face.

"Goodbye, Cheryl."

"Goodbye, Mother. "

Penelope walks to the passenger seat and Claudius, not bothering to look at her niece, starts the engine and engages to leave. Before Penelope finally disappears down hills away from Thistlehouse and Riverdale, her eyes meet those of Cheryl, both pairs more vulnerable than ever, and the pleaded order escapes her as well.

"Be safe, too. Hiram Lodge will spare no effort to destroy the Serpents, their homes and their legacy."

As the car grows smaller as it distances, Cheryl tries hard to absorb and control her emotions. When her knees hit the stones on the ground, she knows she gave in.

Tears blurs her makeup and slides long into the leather of her red jacket sporting the Serpent's symbol on her back. Cheryl is alone in despair, hugging herself, hyperventilating, the truth hitting her with an almost ironic and perverse cruelty.

The onerous chaos that weighs on her shoulders causes her to blindly send a message to Toni, run to the red Chevrolet Impala and drive slowly, weeping blurring her vision, toward the only place that causes her both comfort and distress.

Sweetwater River.

 

_This is what makes us girls_

_We don't stick together 'cause we put our love first_

_Don't cry about him, don't cry about him_

_It's all gonna happens_

 

Twilight hangs in the sky amidst orange and purple colors, and Cheryl contemplates the river's stream, curled up in herself, the burning trail of tears like a cruel memory. When she threatens to break again, however, the unmistakable sound of Toni's motorcycle echoes sliding through grass and ground, fading to sound the rapid strides of her heavy boots.

Cheryl recognizes peace, as if her world rediscovers some balance, when Toni hugs her from behind, interlacing her hands in front and resting her head on her shoulder. Warm and comforting, everything she really needs right now.

Cheryl squirms to face her and plunge into her embrace as a brilliant and divine salvation. When their eyes meet and Cheryl can see, though Toni tries to avoid it, she's been crying too, they cling to each other with the knowledge that they both escape all the horror, all insanity.

"I'm sorry." Cheryl whimpers against her pink hair. "For not being there with you."

"Hey... " Toni holds her face. "I'm happy, Cheryl, I really am." She smiled contentedly, rubbing the redhead's tenacious arms. "All I need now is to know what happened to you."

Tears flow back down Cheryl's cheeks before she can stop them.

"She's gone. Away from Riverdale. She's gone forever."

"Cheryl ..." Toni stroked her face again, brushing away the tears.

"I should be happy. Why am I not happy, how can I not be ecstatic, finally, Toni?" Her sadness growls.

"She's your mother, Cheryl. You're allowed to be sad."

Toni would never deny how much she hates Penelope Blossom for all the pain the hateful woman inflicted on Cheryl for all those years. But Toni also understands one or two things about negligent parents, in the specter of her own experiences, intimately embracing her girlfriend's pain.

They remain so, bathed by the changing shades of the sky, with the watery symphony of the river sliding around, embraced with firmness and caress, allowing the last crushing events to slow in the presence of each other.

 

 

_And that's where the beginning of the end began_

_Everybody knew that we had too much fun_

_We were skippin' school and drinkin' on the job_

 

A loud engine breaks her intimate atmosphere and Cheryl is surprised to see Veronica's luxury automobile parking next to her car.

"I was forgetting." Toni narrows her eyes for a second. "Josie called you several times, but you didn't answer. Veronica found her crying at Pop's and called me, trying to catch up with you. I said we'd be here. "

Cheryl smiles tenderly and bends to kiss her gently.

In the moment the doors are open, Josie runs toward they, not even caring when her beautiful scarf falls on the ground, being trampled underfoot, and throws herself into Cheryl's arms, crying over what was still in storage.

Toni gives them space to approach a silent and sad Veronica, helping Betty out of the other side of the car, finding the blonde even more devastated, with her big eyes swollen from crying.

Veronica and Toni sit on the car's hood, with Betty between them. Betty leans on Veronica's shoulder and catches Toni's hand, taking long, deep breaths. When Josie's sobs subside, Cheryl holds her and approaches the other girls, stroking her back.

 

_Sweet sixteen and we had arrived_

_Baby's table dancin' at the local dive_

_Cheerin' our names in the pink spotlight_

_Drinkin' cherry schnapps in the velvet night_

 

Silence brings them together and they all exchange glances between themselves, familiar glances of different pains, different nightmares, but still painful and damaged, still the same in their different dimensions. And there is no return when they realize, in the eyes of each other, the comfort of an intrinsic agony. Time disappears, space expands and colors... Suddenly vibrate.

 

 

_Yo, we used to go break in to the hotel_

_Glimmering and we’d swim_

_Runnin' from the cops in our black bikini tops_

_Screaming "get us while we're hot"_

_Get us while we're hot_

 

 

 

A solitary tear trickles down Veronica's face and Cheryl grabs it before the fall, both of them staring deeply before they start to smile.

Veronica rises abruptly and puts her hands on her waist, determined and excited in her movements.

"You know what?" She exhales with a laugh. "No. Suffering in silence? No. We're not doing this."

The brunette slips from the car and bolts into the open window to pick up the keys and open the trunk, revealing two velvet blankets and a bottle full of 12 years old whisky, smiling as if it were her most dazzling idea.

Betty wipes the tears from her face and laughs, nodding in response.

Toni, Cheryl and Josie don't need to come forward to agree.

 

 

_The prettiest in crowd that you had ever seen_

_Ribbons in our hair and our eyes gleamed mean_

_A freshmen generation of degenerate beauty queens_

_And you know something...?_

 

 

The bonfire in the center snuggles them against the vigorous night wind and the vivid flames accompany them like a categorically rehearsed dance.

Josie is singing and using the whiskey bottle, now almost empty, like a microphone.

Veronica is between Toni and Cheryl, the three girls dancing together, holding each other between drunken stumbles, their laughter echoing through the dark night.

Betty, with Cheryl's leather jacket on her shoulders and her ponytail undone, her golden wires bobbing free on her face, moves away when her phone vibrates and jumps on the screen the picture of a grinning Jughead.

_"Hey, Jug. I'm sorry, can we reschedule dinner? "_

_"Sure, sure. "_ She can guess his smile behind the screen. _"I'll call Archie and Sweet Pea, try to make them get along. But you're okay? "_

 _"Yeah, don't worry, I'm fine. "_ She turns to the fire and finds Toni with one hand outstretched toward her and a drunken smile on her face as Cheryl and Veronica whirl around each other awkwardly. _"I'm... Safe. "_

 

And Betty is right.

 

They are all safe.

 

Cause there, on the sandy shores of the Sweetwater River, they aren't part of a sullen conspiracy; they aren't the inheritance of blood in their veins or mere ends for purposes beyond their control.

Dancing and singing around the fire, barefoot, with a empty whisky bottle, they aren't characters of a scary plot.

Not the daughter of a bloodthirsty man, whose belief in the last ounce of goodness in her heroes was broken, succumbing to the harsh words of the hero who disappointed her.

Not the rising star in the shadow of an absent father and a mother who manipulates and isolates her, as if she were a magnanimous product without permission to fail or even breathe.

Not the daughter of a blood-stained serial killer, tormented by the hidden terror of being mad like him.

Not the girl with no past and unstable future, screaming at two old graves as if someone who is no longer there could hear her.

Not a neglected child suffering constant physical and psychological abuse of the person who was supposed to love her, above all others, even when she thought she had got rid of her forever.

Not what they expected. Not what they manipulate. Not what they hurts.

 

 

_They were the only friends I ever had_

_We got into trouble and when stuff got bad_

_I got sent away, I was wavin' on the train platform_

_Crying 'cause I know I'm never comin' back_

 

When Josie chants a romantic song, with second crooked vocals and giggles from Betty and Veronica; and Cheryl and Toni fall together in a slow and intimate dance, Cheryl opens a wide and mischievous smile, one of those smiles that make butterflies explode into Toni's stomach, one of the smiles Toni would like her parents to see, and kneels before her dramatically, holding her hands together with Nana Rose's ring.

"Marry me. This instant. This place. I don't care."

Toni widens her eyes and laughs at her unusual choice of words, blushing as Betty, Veronica and Josie utter shrill cries of emotion.

"The answer would be yes anytime and anywhere, Cheryl Blossom." Toni follows her absolute romanticism, accepting the ring.

"Veronica Lodge is ready! Come on, Josie." Veronica drags Josie to stand between Cheryl and Toni, pulling Cheryl off her knees and dragging her away, arranging an improvised hairstyle in her long red hair as Betty stumbles to the car to take Veronica's black cloak and accommodate on Toni's shoulders, gracing her with a wild flower, picked right there, on her neck.

Josie solves the marital march while Betty stands next to Toni and Veronica walks seriously arm in arm with Cheryl as if they were on an altar, plus wildflowers falling from the redhead's hands.

"You better take care of my little girl, Antoinette Topaz." Veronica thickens her voice and tries to hold a hostile expression.

"I promise, she's in good hands, Sir." Toni jokes, taking Cheryl's hands between hers.

"Antoinette Topaz and Cheryl Marjorie Blossom." Josie begins solemnly, with open arms. "We came here to celebrate your marriage. Is it your free will and with your whole heart that you want to unite?"

Cheryl and Toni can't take their eyes off each other.

"Yes," They respond in unison.

"And are you both determined to love and respect each other for the rest of your lives?"

"Yes." Again together, a genuine smile stretched out on Toni.

"You can begin the vows." Josie bowed.

 

 

_This is what makes us girls_

_We all look for heaven and we put our love first_

_Something that we'd die for, it's a curse_

_Don't cry about it, don't cry about it_

 

 

"Anoinette Topaz ..." Cheryl takes the ring Veronica was carrying. "I have no idea what I'm doing." A laugh escapes her, followed by a chorus of other excited laughter. "You have blossomed my world into inexperienced happiness, into a home, to where I truly belong. And I promise that one day we will be married in a spectacular ceremony, with every rightst, with all the people that matter. I'll even allow them to serve your beloved chocolat milkshakes, whatever you want, because you deserve nothing less than everything, nothing less than extraordinary.It's what I want to give you, all of the most extraordinary. "

Nana Rose's ring easily slides on Toni's finger, which has eyes on Cheryl with a new glow, almost exploding from the orbits.

"No speech can go against Cheryl Blossom's speeches." Veronica hovered over her, sighing contentedly.

"Cheryl Marjorie Blossom ..." Toni breathes deeply, the words suddenly too big to be spoken, like Cheryl's and her vocabulary, as she's all so sensational. Toni pulls a silver cord around her neck to reveal a gold ring with a small ruby in the center, making Cheryl's heart soar. "It was my mother's. I always kept it close to my heart like it was all I had, but no more. I don't need a fancy ceremony full of people, you don't have to worry about giving me everything. You're already all the extraordinary, Cheryl. I love you. "

"This is getting too real right now. " Betty murmurs, gaping, mirroring Veronica's and Josie's shocked and melted reaction.

The silence makes Toni tremble before Cheryl opens a smile full of tenderness.

"You ... You love me?"

Veronica covers her mouth with one hand to suppress a sob as Josie folds her arms in disbelief.

"Cheryl Blossom, don't you already said 'I love you' to her? You, Queen of the Show and the great Dramas?"

"No. We never said it." Cheryl still smiles softly at Toni.

"I love you, Cheryl." Toni repeats the sentence in a whisper, as if telling a secret.

"I love you too, Toni." She laughs with all her heart, sliding Toni's mother's ring into her own finger, admiring it as if it were priceless.

"Jeez, why am I crying?" Betty wears the sweater sleeve over her wet face.

"In the light of such revelations, if there is anyone present who opposes this marriage, speak now or be silent forever." Josie tries to amusingly recover the casualness lost in the statements of Cheryl and Toni.

In the face of silence, with anxiety overflowing, Cheryl dabbed her nails into Toni's neck, over Veronica's thick cloak, bending to kiss her as soon as she hear the final words. When her lips are almost united, Veronica screams dramatically and grabs Cheryl's waist from behind, carrying her away.

"I object!" Veronica thickens her voice again.

At the same time, Betty bends to pick up Toni as a bride and screams as dramatically as Veronica.

"This union can't happen!"

Cheryl and Toni embark on their staging, stretching an arm, trying to reach each other as Betty and Veronica stumble trying to hold them.

"Cheryl!" Toni laments theatrically. "I'll find you no matter where you go!"

"Free her, I command!" Cheryl scolds Veronica, almost unable to hide her laughter. "Do what you wish with me, but free her!"

In their reckless performance, with Josie's harmonic laughter composing the scene, they don't realize they're so close to the riverbank. It's a disastrous sequence, and it only enhances Josie's laughter when Betty slides with Toni and Veronica staggers with Cheryl, all four falling into the river's freezing water, shivering and giggling.

"Okay, girls, I'm sorry, but this needs an official register." Josie looks at the camera phone in the burlesque scene, preparing to photograph them.

"Oh, do you truly believe you cant escape, Josephine McCoy?" Cheryl advances with her hairstyle misaligned and her cheeks flushed, chasing Josie around the perimeter around the fire, ignoring for the first time the pitiful state of her elegant, expensive clothes.

Toni, Betty and Veronica sit on the blanket spread out on the ground, getting rid of their coats and soaked sweaters, while Cheryl reaches Josie and they fall side by side on the grass, laughing out panting from the effort.

Josie turns to look at her and Cheryl looks more graceful than she's ever seen.

"Are you okay?" The musician asks gently.

"Yes. Yes, I am. Are you?" Cheryl mirrors her gentleness.

"I do not know if I've been better." She confess.

Cheryl frowns suddenly, opening a smile lost between frightness and fascination.

"She loves me, Josie. Toni loves me."

"I know." Josie bends to kiss her forehead briefly. "You're worthy of love, Cheryl Blossom. You've always been."

 

 

_This is what makes us girls_

_We don't stick together 'cause we put our love first_

_Don't cry about him, don't cry about him_

_It's all gonna happen_

 

 

For every wild desire for freedom, a chain and a punishment.

For every secret pleasure, a behavioral reprimand of etiquette and submission.

For every unsaid truth, a rein, a grid, a mirror, a boundary.

 

Because no girl can be "just a girl".

 

It doesn't matter their appearance, or popularity, or even their intelligence. It doesn't matter that it's in or out of any standard or stereotype.  
  
_No girl can be just a girl._

Always will be required more. Be it in the expectations, be it in the behaviors, in the cares, at every step, at every damage.

And perhaps, when they leave this peaceful shrine, the chaos will fall upon their heads as a reminder of this stern truth: No girl can simply _"be."_ But there, for now, on the banks of Sweetwater River, with 12 years old whisky, golden flames, improvised dances, tragicomic ceremonies and shared misfortunes, in short...

 

They're just _being_.

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for getting here! See you soon. :) 
> 
> Find me on twitter: @dokkstormur


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